1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sutureless closure for a skin wound or incision and more particularly to such a closure in which a plurality of parallel filaments disposed between opposing ends of tape strips compress and draw together the incision or wound.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are numerous prior art devices and methods for closing surgical incisions or wounds. The terms incision and wound are referred to herein interchangeably as the present invention may be utilized to close both surgical incisions and wounds.
In the prior art, adhesive bandages may be used to cover a wound as well as draw the edges thereof together to facilitate healing. Wounds and surgical incisions are sometimes sutured together using filament and a needle. U.S. Pat. No. 4,825,866 to Pierce discloses a wound closure device in which VELCRO attaching means are adhered to either side of a wound for drawing together and securing the opposite sides of the wound. The Pierce device does not provide any pressure against the wound which is a recognized technique for promoting healing.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,423,731 to Roomi discloses a surgical dressing in which two strips of adhesive plaster lie along either side and parallel to a wound. Each strip has filaments secured at spaced intervals along one side thereof. The free ends of the filaments are secured to two additional plaster strips which adhere to the skin at a region further away from the wound.
The Roomi device suffers from a number of disadvantages. First, the filaments in Roomi are applied to skin both across the incision and between the plaster strips on each side of the incision. The threads tend to initate the skin when pressed thereagainst. Also, the threads in Roomi are very widely spaced, apparently somewhere in the range of two to three threads per inch. The wound or incision could be better drawn together with more threads per inch. In addition, a sufficient number of threads would apply pressure against the wound similar to a gauze pad which promotes healing.
The filaments in the Roomi dressing are connected to the sides of elongate plaster strips. More tension could be applied if the threads were connected to the end of the strips. In addition, connecting filaments to the end of the strips produces a much narrower bandage which would permit using more bandages per wound. This would enable connecting each closure with different levels of tension. This may be desirable in the case where the wound or incision depth varies or where vascular concentrations might require more tension in the filaments for optimum healing.